Police Cynicism Essay

According to Caplan (2003), “cynicism is an inevitable consequence of police work, and a cynic expects nothing but the worst in human behavior” (p.304). When police officers are in uniform most racial minorities see them as a part of an unfeeling institution they can't trust. I believe most police officers are aware of their reality on the streets, but because of frequent danger and the constant reality of staying one step ahead of criminals cause undue cynicism towards the general public. However, research studies has shown this behavior is often more noticeable with veteran officers than newly appointed officers. Next, the ongoing issue of new recruits being rushed through the training academy onto the streets is because there is more crime than available officers to patrol which is one cause of heighten stress for the officers. An example of this comes from a story aired on a local news channel in the

United States of a young Black man in his 20’s with a mental disability being shot down in cold blood because officers on the scene were ill-equipped to handle a request to restrain without using deadly force. The officers fired. Victim’s mother can be heard wailing, “Oh my child, they killed my child, oh, they killed my child”. Later in an interview, “I didn’t call for them to take him to the morgue.” The mother told “Nightline,” reflecting on the 2014 incident. ‘I called for medical help” (Pitts, Jesko & Effron, 2015, September 30).

Now, I wasn’t present but in my opinion you can’t know for sure that one if not all of the police officers involved didn’t feel remorse for the death of this young man.

It is impossible to know what exactly is in another’s mind. However, it would definitely help if emphasis on the basics of mental illness course during the academy was offered to avoid these types of tragedies. Some say it could be racial profiling fueled by racism that causes most law enforcement officers to make the wrong choice when it comes to the safety of the very society they are sworn to protect. Is it that simple? Well, I don’t believe it is and I will try to show both sides of the difficulty in defining what behaviors an officer exhibits is racial profiling or not. As the research will support there is definitely a need for organizational change within the United States police force. There is also proof there is racism behind racial profiling and sometimes it is not racism at all. However, there is no simple explanation for what we are experiencing today, but there needs to be a

solution.